Archbishop Nienstedt: Gay marriage ban is not anti-gay

Archbishop John Nienstedt penned a column on Thursday defending the Catholic Church’s decision to lobby for an amendment that would add a ban on same-sex marriage to the Minnesota Constitution. He said the amendment is not “anti-gay, mean-spirited and prejudicial.” Later in the column he endorses the words of his fellow Catholic, the Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, who says if same-sex marriage is legalized, it could lead to polygamy and incest.

“Regrettably, the media and some secular commentators have chosen to mischaracterize this measure as anti-gay, mean-spirited and prejudicial,” wrote Nienstedt in the Archdiocese newspaper, the Catholic Spirit. “This is not the case or the intent behind the initiative.”

Nienstedt argued that children fare best in families with one mother and one father, an argument that seems to contradict most research on same-sex parenting.

“Pastorally, children flourish best in the context of having both a mother and a father. Every scientific study confirms this reality,” he wrote.

But a review of 81 studies of many family types released late last year showed the opposite.

“No research supports the widely held conviction that the gender of parents matters for child well-being,” wrote sociologists Stacey and Timothy Biblarz of the University of Southern California.

The Catholic Church recognizes homosexuality as a mortal sin.
This has been stated time and time again.
The comments from the Archbishop are not surprising, they are in keeping with church dogma. No matter how much people want the Catholic Church to change . . . it will not happen.

The Catholic Church recognizes homosexuality as a mortal sin.
This has been stated time and time again.
The comments from the Archbishop are not surprising, they are in keeping with church dogma. No matter how much people want the Catholic Church to change . . . it will not happen.

Not homosexuality--homosexual behavior. The church has long been quite comfortable with celibacy, fostering it as a higher state than married chastity.

It's a the very least hostile to gays. With all respect to the Archbishop, the Roman Catholic Church should focus on fixing their own problems before they come even close to telling gays and lesbians they shouldn't be able to marry. If he doesn't want Catholic churches blessing gay marriages, that's his right and problem but there's no reason at all why under the eyes of the law gay and lesbians citizens can't be married.